The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

And the Goddess of War Stood Still 
by Alina Măciucă

a hundred thousand swords at once willed to pierce the skies instead of the earth

the goddess stood still, statuesque–for she was a goddess, after all–implacable,

eyes wide open, mouth shut, jaw clenched, as if blood ran through her veins

as it once did. roots pointed upward and branches drilled the soil digging up

the dead, mingling their bones into a ponderous behemoth of war, yet the goddess

did not even blink, not even a strand of her hair moved when the storm blew away

the heavens with its temples and love nests. she could have raised her shield, avert

the wind, she could have speared the behemoth, she could have crushed the dead,

she could have, at least, wiggled her toes in her steel boots, but she did not even gasp

when the dead swallowed her world whole, she did not breathe, she did not close her eyes.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alina Măciucă
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.com

More about Alina Măciucă:

Alina Măciucă enjoys reading, writing, buying odd trinkets, and taking photos of beautifully decaying buildings. She has formally studied religion and hermeneutics at the University of Bucharest, and really has a thing for the Greco-Roman mysteries and Gnosticism, as well as for Renaissance magic. She lives in Bucharest with her very supportive boyfriend, their two cats, and an ever-expanding vinyl and book collection.